We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tom Gauthier a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tom, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

That I was able to bring together a team that made a measurable positive impact on the planet and public health along with bringing financial benefits to farmers.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m the grandson of a Wisconsin farmer. I grew up in Chicago and learned from my father how to fix things and that really put me on the track of getting a degree from the University of Illinois in Chemical Engineering. I also felt the desire to serve my country, so I joined the US Army as a Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Specialist within a Special Forces unit. I then spent 25 years in a consulting capacity traveling and bringing technology strategy and deployment to many large global customers. About six years ago I had the opportunity to lead an agriculture software company and I enjoyed getting back into Agriculture, so I decided to start my own company with a focus on solving the problems farmers have with weeds, water, and labor. AgTechLogic brings innovative and affordable solutions to any size of farms. Our focus is in precision agriculture and gathering data to provide insights that don’t exist today to help reduce costs, risks and improve operations. I’m proud of the fact that we have been able to record over 1.1M lbs of herbicide reduced to date with the goal of reaching 1 billion lbs reduced by the end of 2028.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

I initially started on the side as I was still consulting and invested my own time and funds. Then I was able to land a customer to get a little traction, but the biggest boost was in two events. First, I told my story to a complete stranger that believed in me, the mission of reducing herbicide use and the business case. He then wrote me a large check even before I had much structure in the company. This was a huge step as I then believed that others would also want to support the mission. The second was reconnecting with a friend that I used to work for that I always looked up too and he was very excited, spent time to learn what I was doing and not only invested, but became my Advisory Team lead and Investor Lead. His leadership and trust was a huge blessing and has brought us to the ability to reach our mission.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

We’ve had many times where we were very close to missing payroll, but a combination of working hard, networking, trusting your team and probably a little luck helped us to survive the very difficult times. There was also faith in our mission. We knew that our mission was worthy and had a solid business case. We just needed to work the plan with more focus. It was certainly scary at time and my stomach was churning, but was also hopeful of the impact we could make on the planet, people and farmers. So, we continued to push. When these times happen, you need a team! Use them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.agtechlogic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agtechlogic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agtechlogic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agtechlogic/
• Twitter: https://x.com/AgTechLogic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@agtechlogic

Image Credits

Amy Koenig, Stephanie Gauthier,